Getting Around.

Cta Passes The Buck On Its Change-making Machines

October 20, 1997|By Jon Hilkevitch.

Before street corner robberies were omnipresent, before the dashboards of buses were outfitted with panic buttons, a more rider-friendly period in public transit existed and three words never were strung together.

The dreaded phrase? Exact change only.

A commuter hopping a bus could board with a five-dollar bill in hand. The driver would pull a roll of paper money out of a shirt pocket or dispense a combination of quarters, nickels and dimes from a shiny metal change-holder that was rubber-banded to a post and--marvel of marvels--make change for the passenger.

One indication of how times have changed is now being felt by customers of the Chicago Transit Authority. Not only are fare-booth agents gone, but change-making machines at rapid-transit stations no longer accept $1 bills. Effective last week, $5 bills are the minimum the contraptions will take.

CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney said the agency banned singles from the change machines because their "overuse" was resulting in the devices being prematurely emptied of quarters. The vendor servicing the change machines, Gaffney said, had threatened to charge the CTA a higher fee because of the unanticipated high-maintenance situation.

Getting Around is foursquare behind the CTA saving four bits everywhere it can. But rather than inconveniencing riders by banning the breaking of bucks, CTA president Frank Kruesi should immediately revise the CTA's fare-pricing policy of offering transit-card discounts based on the old token system.

Savvy riders resist feeding a $20 bill into the agency's new transit card vending machines because the CTA's 10 percent discount stops at either $13.50 (10 rides) or $16.50 (10 rides plus transfers), or multiples of those amounts. Many riders, therefore, are overtaxing the change-making machines in order to get the proper amount to make optimal use of the discounts.

Why not, Mr. Kruesi, expand the 10 percent discount program to customers willing to prepay, say, $20 or $25 at a time? Such a move would seem to solve a few problems.

It's also ironic (or just plain dumb) that the CTA is paying a private contractor to service the change-making machines while plenty of currency and coins are available inside the transit card vending machines. As things currently stand, CTA employees empty the transit card machines and then tote the bags of money to the agency's counting facility at Goose Island. The vendor, meanwhile, takes the change-machine money elsewhere, resulting in higher bank charges to the cash-strapped CTA. Why not coordinate the processes into one system?

Of course, had the CTA purchased more efficient transit-card vending machinery that actually returned change to the customer, we wouldn't be asking all these questions.

Addendum: Change machine break-ins by thieves have cost the CTA almost $55,000 so far this year.

Don't go there

A word of advice to motorists thinking about exiting Lake Shore Drive at Belmont Avenue beginning later this week: Don't!

On Thursday, a $2.5 million project gets under way to widen streets and ramps, improve traffic signals and add turn lanes at the Belmont-Sheridan Road-Lake Shore Drive intersection. The widening of Sheridan at Belmont will include the addition of a dedicated right-turn lane on northbound Sheridan to eastbound Belmont and combination left-turn/straight lanes on both north and southbound Sheridan, said Craig Wolf of the Chicago Department of Transportation.

The Belmont entrance and exit ramps off Lake Shore Drive will be widened to create two dedicated lanes on each ramp and easier turning. Other changes include widening of the recreation sidewalk and extending the cinder running path in the park east of the Belmont ramps.

Motorists who usually exit the Drive at Belmont are advised to use Irving Park Road or Fullerton. The project is scheduled for completion prior to the Cubs home opener in April.

Transpo quickies

Last week, Chicago's finest blanketed LaSalle Drive--the official detour route marking the beginning of a six-month water tunnel project shutting down two lanes of northbound Lake Shore Drive near Oak Street. The strong police presence really moved traffic along on LaSalle and Getting Around recommends that the extra traffic cops remain highly visible for the project's duration. . . . A yearlong, $8.3 million pavement-widening project begins this week on Mannheim Road over the Proviso Railroad Yard and through the towns of Bellwood, Melrose Park and Stone Park. . . . The U.S. Highway 30 (Cass Avenue) bridge over the Des Plaines River in Joliet is being closed this week for about a month of repairs. . . . Expect weekend lane reductions on the Eisenhower and Stevenson Expressways at various locations through October.